Point of view

Another cool, cloudy day. I went to the St Catherine's Eucharist this morning. We were eleven altogether, with five regulars away. Jean organised drinks in the hall afterwards, as Hilary and Clive are away. Fr. Andrew arrived by bike after the service, to rendezvous with Fr Sion to take a cycle ride around Cardiff Bay and back before lunch. Fr Rowan was with us. He told me after that a commission he's part of looking at the future of governance in Wales is reporting to the new First Minister soon. The timing seems right as a new phase in relationships with Westminster is now under way. 

We talked about the unfinished business of brexit and its impact on the devolved nations, an issue avoided in recent electoral campaigning, apart from Labour's promise to improve relationships with the EU. How can things be improved until the deep rift between proponents and opponents of brexit has been healed, and justice done in a situation where the very referendum process was flawed by excluding UK voters in the EU, and ignoring the need for a two thirds majority to make such a huge change in relationships with our nearest neighbours.

On my way home I collected this week's veggie bag from Chapter. I was surprised to see a fire truck in Llanfair Road, though there was no sign of smoke in the vicinity. A small domestic emergency maybe? I did the weekly Co-op grocery shopping after lunch, then went for a walk in the park.

As I was walking I started to think about how an artist or a photographer may depict what they see from a particular viewpoint. What they consider to be the subject is determined by what they notice, what story they want to tell through their creative act. That led me to think about my novel, five years on from starting to write it. I tell about the subject in the third person, but who am I in relation to the subject of the story and its setting? Then I had an idea about how I could revise the introductory passage, by inventing a story teller who belongs in the context of the story.

After supper, I spent the rest of the evening again revising chapters of the novel, starting with a preface to introduce the story teller in the first person. I think it works, but over time, it will need revising too! Such fun, working with words.